1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to a fixing unit and an image forming apparatus equipped with the fixing unit.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In general, an image forming apparatus such as a printer, a copying machine, a fax machine or the like which uses electronic photography is provided with a fixing unit. The fixing unit is provided for heating a recording medium such as paper or the like which carries a toner image formed from toner in an unfixed state and for applying pressure thereto to fix the toner image onto the recording medium (see JP-A No. 2001-5239).
This fixing unit includes a pair of cylindrical rollers which are rotated with being pressed to each other, and a heat source which heats one of these rollers. By passing the recording medium through the nip formed by the pair of rollers which are pressed to each other, and applying heat and pressure to the recording medium, the toner image formed on the recording medium is fixed onto the recording medium.
Further, in the prior art mentioned above, in order to achieve the objectives such as preventing a user from touching the high-temperature roller and ensuring safety, the pair of rollers is housed inside a housing to cover the periphery of the pair of rollers except for the recording medium passage area. Further, because this housing also reaches a relatively high temperature, a warning label having a warning about high temperature is affixed to the outer surface of the housing with an adhesive.
However, if an adhesive of the type that is resistant to the high temperature of the outer surface of the housing is not used, the label can peel off from the outer surface of the housing during the use of the fixing unit, and there are cases where this makes it impossible to give such warning when necessary. On the other hand, when an adhesive of the type that is resistant to the high temperature of the outer surface of the housing is used in order to prevent the problem mentioned above, it becomes difficult to peel off the label from the outer surface of the housing at the time when the fixing unit is to be recycled, and this becomes a hindrance to recycling operations.